Anne-Marie PHILBIN Obituary

1992 - 2022: Thirty years ago, Whitireia Community Polytechnic Art Department graduated its first four students with the new National Craft & Design Diploma.
Inaugural graduates Wi Taepa, Ernest Sami, Tracey Morgan, and Eric Ngan - recreating the class photo!

Unfortunately Anne could not join us in person for the reunion event at Pataka Gallery & Museum 12 November 2022.
Anne Philbin was the driving force behind this art school and the curriculum, and we are so fortunate to be part of this legacy.

We were joined by Ray Thorburn and other ex-faculty and students to reminisce and share stories of that time.
It was a special day and Anne is sorely missed, but her impact lives on through us.

Anne was my first and only woman lecturer at Elam.I still value her intelligent, straight, passionate and structured way of approaching an art problem.Mostly though, I REMEMBER HER KINDNESS and her horror at cruelty and violence. It was no easy task to speak about art or politics in a female voice then, and I do not believe she was not always treated with the respect she deserved when she presented a more international point of view. I am grateful to have known her. At times when I have needed to be brave, I have remembered her. RIP Anne.
Anne HILL